Trudel Residence

8134 Jasper Avenue , Edmonton

Richard Blakey, Alberta’s provincial architect from 1912 to 1924, designed this clinker brick house in 1928. He is best remembered for his work on the Alberta Legislature, including the design of its rotunda, staircase and south block. This home was one of Blakey’s few residential commissions as a private architect. The Trudel Residence is noted for its unique architecture, a mixture of styles carefully proportioned and designed to take advantage of the views over the North Saskatchewan River valley. Note the eight Palladian arched wooden-sash windows, hip roof with wood shingles, arched panels with shell motif above entrances, attached garage and portico with rounded roof. The interior has three fireplaces, original hardwood floors, ceramic tile and double French doors. The surrounding trees and hedges complement the building’s dignified character.

The building’s original owner, Ludger Trudel, lived here from 1928 to 1932. He was a local furrier who traded and manufactured fur products for local and regional markets. Nicknamed Edmonton’s “Buffalo King,” he paid for the house using proceeds from the sale of buffalo coats to the R.C.M.P.

The Trudel Residence is valued as representative of the quality of houses built for locally successful entrepreneurs and civic leaders. The neighbourhood’s proximity to Edmonton’s former commercial core, east of the present downtown, and its attractive setting encouraged affluent families to settle here prior to the Second World War. Notable for its high quality of construction, the house is one of the best preserved homes in the area. It remains a prominent local landmark to this day.

- Edmonton Historical Board